Year 11, Day 51

Endless Canopy

‘Ah…’ Swaying with the wind, the soft breeze shifting ever so slightly as it passed through his leaves, Root meditated. He could feel every single individual leaf from his large body move with the wind, absorb the light of the sun, and slowly dissipate the Yin Qi within it to use the Fire Qi and Light Qi that composed the Sun Qi to turn it into Nature Qi through constant metamorphosis of energy, also known as photosynthesis. ‘Now, let's try it-’ Root was no longer an individual massive tree, his main body was the enormous tree that was in the middle of his large forest, but now he was more like a hive mind. Every single tree was part of him, and he was part of every single tree on a fundamental, spiritual level. So much so that all the Spirit Trees that started their cultivation journey thanks to either his Seedlings or by being fused with one of his Lesser Nature Spirit children were now like mini versions of him 

He could feel their souls. They were like newborn children, pure and a blank slate. Their Cultivation Root was this soft green color, signifying their Nature Qi affinity… 

“Here we go…” Root whispered as his Qi flowed through his roots as he used his technique [Mycorrhizal Network]. Before the technique was an [S Rank] technique, he never knew that his Nature Qi could flow so quickly and so naturally through his roots and enter the bodies of all the trees! It took him only one minute to spread his Nature Qi through his entire forest body, making all the leaves of all the trees softly glow with a pale green light. “I hope this works - no, I know it'll work.” 

Root took a deep breath. 

Immediately, all the Nature Qi that he flowed through the trees seemed to flow like the waters of a river. It moved quickly but softly, in a delicate balance of speed and dexterity as the Nature Qi moved. Root almost stopped his cultivation when he felt the huge amount of Nature Qi that filled his big tree body - it was almost too much! 

What did he do? Well, he used [Mycorrhizal Network] to connect to his entire forest and through all his trees he used his [Heavenly Qi Conversion Technique] to transform the Sun Qi into Nature Qi without any loss of Qi, then he used [Great Forest Breathing Technique] to pull it to his main body and cultivate that Nature Qi. He was, honestly, very surprised by the sheer amount of Nature Qi that was flowing to his body! If he was a human, Root would have certainly died here. ‘Keep calm, and [Purification].’ Using his S Rank skill [Purification] to purify the excessive Nature Qi, Root smiled as the huge amount of Nature Qi was condensed into this small amount of Heavenly Pure Quality Nature Qi, which was exactly what he needed to cultivate! Sure, he could use normal Nature Qi to cultivate, but it wouldn't give him the same result he would have if he used the Heavenly Pure Quality Nature Qi that he was using right now. 

His core pulsed with energy. It glowed and cracked for a moment before it increased in size about 5% as it fizzled and closed. Immediately, he checked his status to see that his cultivation had increased from the [4th Stage] of the Core Exaltation Realm right to the [5th Stage] of the Core Exaltation Realm. He smiled, feeling his core slowly expand once more. It would take him about… 5 hours to go from the [5th Stage] to the [6th Stage] if Nature Qi keeps steadily flowing like it is right now. “Children, time to help your father.” All his 13,576,670 Lesser Nature Spirit children started to float, dancing in the wind as their small green bodies started to absorb sunlight and turn it into Nature Qi, which they dispersed into the atmosphere. 

It was a spectacular experience for everyone within the Heavenly Spirit Forest to see the entire ground, trees, and even the wind have this soft hue of glowing green color as a lot of Nature Qi flowed towards the enormous tree body. If you stayed still and looked at Root's main body, you'd see that it was slowly growing bigger and bigger. It looked like a balloon, growing larger and larger. 

Thankfully, he was a tree. If he was a human, his body would have exploded in a shower of gore by now. His 500 meters (1,640 feet in yeehaw gunshot eagle freedom hamburger unit) tall body slowly but surely started to increase in size at a speed perceptive to the naked eye He grew taller and taller as his cultivation increased. By the end of the day, he was halfway through the [5th Stage] of the Core Exaltation Realm, and his size went from 500 meters up to 505 meters (1,640 feet to 1,656 feet) in just 5 hours! He kept cultivating even through the night, not sleeping or resting as the forest pulled more and more Qi from the world around and converted it to Nature Qi to fuel Root's cultivation. As he grew in power, his forest also spread around! Trees had their roots pushed out of the ground, and seeds and saplings grew from the sandy ground in a haste. The 123 acres (500,000 m² in normal people measurements) went up to 124 acres (505,000 m²) as Root kept cultivating through the day and night. 

Year 11, Day 58

For an entire week, Root did not stop cultivating. 

Day and night, he turned the Sun Qi and Moon Qi into Nature Qi through his entire forest body. As he cultivated, he grew higher and higher, his forest spread out more and more and more- His original 500 (1,640 feet) had turned into 600 meters (1,968 feet) and his original 500,000 square meters of forest had turned into 550,000 square meters (135 acres)! Growing 100 meters (328 feet) in height and expanding his forest in 50,000 square meters (12 acres) was something he never expected to do so quickly, and thanks to his new Cultivation Path, he was aware of everything inside his forest body. He could feel every single one of the trees that he was connected to, he would feel their pain whenever someone struck them with an ax, so he decided to prohibit felling trees down- Instead, he pulled blocks of wood painlessly from the trees, turning Nature Qi it into 10 meter by 10 meters by 10 meters cubes of pure wood. He gave the mortals responsible for carpentry and other jobs that needed wood about… 500 cubes. 

If they needed more later, he would give them. They were still allowed to use the dead trees and fallen sticks to use for firewood and whatever they wanted to do with it. 

His deep connection with the trees of his forest also made him aware of their needs, which made him able to easily grant nutrients, water, and fertile soil for the trees. They gave him a portion of the Qi he made through them with the [Heavenly Qi Conversion Technique]- after all, he wanted his forest to also grow and become stronger individually, just imagine if every single tree of his forest becomes a Spirit Tree and cultivates too? That would be crazy! -and he used that portion of Qi, refining and purifying it. 

“Father, you've grown so much! I wonder if you'd be able to reach the heavens one day…” Floating above his canopy, Lumin held onto their plushie golden lion, the soothing waves of Light Qi emanating from the little golden lion were enough to keep Lumin from losing himself to their ever growing rage and anger. Light Qi sure is a very destructive type of Qi in this cursed world, huh? “It's strange to see the trees pull the Sun Qi into themselves so quickly and easily…” True to their words, Lumin could easily see the Sun Qi being sucked into the trees around them, it was like watching a black hole pulling light into itself. “Maybe I can do that too?” 

“I wouldn't recommend it, my child.” Root's voice softly whispered within Lumin's mind, making the Light Spirit turn around and look at their father, whose spirit floated before them. Lumin gave Root a small smile as they greeted: “Hello, father- have you come here to teach me more about Qi Conversion?” 

To those who can't remember, Qi actively resists whenever someone tries to change it into another Qi. There are other types of Qis that reject or resist less when being converted, and those are Qis that are somehow or somewhat related to one another. Light Qi shows a lot less resistance whenever Lumin converts it to Fire Qi or vice versa. However, it fights tooth and nail whenever they try to change it into another type of Qi that isn't really related to it. Like turning Light Qi into Dark Qi. (Chapter 23)

“Not now, my child… I have come here to give you a small lesson on something else, however.” Root pulled a string of Qi from his spiritual body. Soon, new strings appeared and weaved, spinning around the main string. The strings thickened and enlarged until there was this thick root-like floating appendage that connected directly in Root's forehead: “Now, open your mind-” When the technique [Root of Knowledge] got stronger and was raised to the S Rank, Root was able to understand the technique on a deeper and more fundamental level. He also understood that while he can give someone the technique, it'll depend on them to work hard to truly understand the technique with their minds and hearts. “-here, you should have a good idea of what I've given you.” 

And indeed, Lumin could. 

“You want me to… Kick someone at lightning speed?”

Endless Mountains of the Raohna Region, Ice Peak, Home to the Icerose Family, Yang Palace. 

Jileng Rong let a hand rest down on his aching and painful stomach as he laid down, his face turned to the bright moon sky, tears in the corner of his eyes. His hope of growing to be the Patriarch of the Icerose family had been shattered a long time ago, but as he felt the Yang Qi enter his body like needles poking his meridians, he felt pain. It was always painful, at first. It was supposed to hurt the first few days of his journey as his body got used to the Yang Qi. As a Yang Cultivator, he was supposed to be humiliated and beaten by the Icerose Ice Qi Cultivators, and as the son of the Icerose Patriarch, he was to be ridiculed and ostracized by his fellow Yang Cultivators peers. 

Nowhere was safe for him. 

As his tears fell onto his body, he accepted the Yang Qi within himself and channeled it through his body, hey, at least he will be able to finally get a good cultivation technique, right-

[Energy Detected!]

[Analyzing energy… Identified.]

[Energy: Moon Qi, containing Ice Qi, Dark Qi, and Yang Qi.]

[Error! Error!]

[Moon Qi does not have Yang Qi.]

[Searching for techniques- No technique for this type of Moon Qi has been created.]

[Good luck.]

-...?

“Hah…” Ladies and gentlemen, it seems he's fucked! ‘Wait, what about Yang Techniques?’

[Accessing Database…]

[102,234,966 Yang Qi techniques have been found.]

[Eliminating Duplicates or Similar Techniques.]

[202 Original Yang Qi Cultivation Techniques have been found.]

‘...narrow it down-’ He thought back about the only of the few weaknesses he would develop as a Yang Qi Cultivator at the Yang Palace: ‘-To one that allows me to walk freely down under the sun, especially made to combat this weakness.’

[3 Techniques have been found- 

- Omnipotent Heaven and Hell Silver Moonlight

- Moon and Sun Qi Gathering Cultivation

- The Path of Twilight Child]

‘...explain, please?’

-Author-

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